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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Although Ilya Kovalchuk said initially after today's practice that he would accompany the team to Philadelphia this afternoon and decide after the morning skate if he'll play against the Flyers Thursday night, Devils coach Pete DeBoer said Kovalchuk won't be going on the trip and won't play again Thursday.

It will be the 11th game in a row that Kovalchuk will miss because of a right shoulder injury he sustained in a 2-1 victory over Florida on March 23. The Devils have lost 10 in a row (0-6-4) since then.

"I just had a conversation with him," DeBoer said. "The plan originally was for him to travel and us to look at it in the morning, but he's not close enough to be a consideration, so we're going to leave him back."

When Kovalchuk spoke to the media after today’s practice he didn’t sound very convincing when talking about if he felt he was ready to help the team. DeBoer said he had a “similar” conversation with Kovalchuk after that.

“It’s not just a conversation, but a conversation and what I saw in practice,” DeBoer said. “It’s a daily evaluation of both and he’s not ready yet and we’re not going to put him in a spot where he can do more damage or he’s not comfortable.”

I asked DeBoer if it was possible if Kovalchuk would be shut down for the rest of the season if the team was eliminated from the playoff race and he said, “I don’t know. I’m taking this day to day, literally. I’m not looking beyond if he’s not ready for Philly, let’s look at Florida.”

DeBoer had said previously that the team would not wait until Kovalchuk is 100 percent to play him and Kovalchuk laughed today when asked if he was 100 percent and said, “I don’t have an answer to that question for you.”

Apparently, he’s not at a high enough percentage to help the Devils right now. It sounded like Kovalchuk desperately wants to help, though, with the team barely alive in the playoff race.

The Devils are six points out of a playoff spot with only six games remaining.

“It’s that kind of timing now,” Kovalchuk said. “We’ve got to try whatever we have left. It doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not. You’d like to get back and help the team.”

With the Flyers being a physical team, holding Kovalchuk out Thursday is probably a safer play. But Kovalchuk said “that’s OK’ if the Flyers were to target or any team were to target his injury.

“Nobody’s 100 percent,” he said. “Everybody got bumps and bruises and it’s a physical game. It’s not about who we play against. It’s just being in condition to help the team, not just to be there.”

Goaltender Martin Brodeur said getting Kovalchuk back would be "a nice boost", but seemed to sense he isn't ready yet even before DeBoer said Kovalchuk wouldn't go to Philadelphia.

“It gives us another weapon offensively if he’s 100 percent," Brodeur said. "I think his health is a lot more important than anything. You don’t want to have permanent damage in an injury if you come back too soon. So, you’ve go to make sure he’s fully ready to go, especially in a building like Philly. It should be physical out there and everything."

If Kovalchuk were to play Saturday, that would be exactly four weeks since he was injured. The team originally estimated he would miss two to four weeks.

“It’s the longest time I missed in my career, but I was here almost every morning at 7 o’ clock or 8,” Kovalchuk said. “I was doing all that stuff, so conditioning is not an issue. We just want to make sure that when I go out there I’m going to help my team.”

It hasn’t been easy for Kovalchuk to sit and watch while the Devils have fallen from seventh place in the conference to 12th with him out of the lineup. They've lost 2-0 in their last two games against Ottawa and Toronto despite outshooting them by a combined 65-24.

“I think the team played really well,” Kovalchuk said. “The guys are working really hard. It just seems like every game we outshoot, outchance the opponents, but we can’t put the puck in the net. Sometimes, like Pete said, he makes the lineup and stuff, he tried everything and we just have to stick to it and hope good things happen to us.”

It's obvious the Devils have missed Kovalchuk, though.

“For us, he’s our offensive guy," Brodeur said. "It’s not just him (scoring), but by him being on the ice makes a big difference, especially the amount of minutes that he plays. He slots all of our other players in different ways that maybe they’ve been more productive like that than playing so many minutes."

Does Kovalchuk believe the Devils still can make the playoffs?

“Why not?" he said. "Before we’ll be out officially we will fight and try our best.”

Brodeur vowed that the Devils will fight to the end.

“I know it’s a long shot, but we feel if win every game there’s a slight possibility to still get in," Brodeur said. "We might as well try.

***DeBoer said he had nothing new on captain Bryce Salvador, but it doesn't sound like he will be returning from his bruised right wrist any time soon.

“He’s seeing doctors and not close to playing," DeBoer said. "That’s the last report I got.”

DeBoer said they called up Urbom to have an extra defenseman around because others have bumps and bruises and Anton Volchenkov is still has two games left on his suspension for elbowoing Boston's Brad Marchand in the head on April 10.

“We’ve got some guys banged up, obviously, with Volchie out and Salvador out," DeBoer said. "We've got some minor bumps and bruises and we need a body around here.”

Urbom said he is going on the trip to Philadelphia, but hadn't been told if he will play against the Flyers. He looked to be the extra defenseman in today's practice.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.